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There are a lot of things I really loved about Last Jedi and a lot of things I really hated about Last Jedi. It was such a mixed bag. I hate the way it threw

There are a lot of things I really loved about Last Jedi and a lot of things I really hated about Last Jedi. It was such a mixed bag. I hate the way it threw out the Star Wars universe's physics - because it took me right out of the universe. Yes, the Star Wars universe never had realistic physics, but it did have reasonably self-consistent physics and Last Jedi threw them away. It had bombs falling in space (as opposed to being projected as missiles), it had turbolasers arcing (not something it ever had before), it introduced hyperspace fuel in order to make the finale escape make sense (they could have just used an interdictor instead). It was maddening. But they almost did something really cool with the force, throwing out the dark/light dichotomy and replacing it with balance. They could have had Rey and Ben actually see eye to eye and both become grey Jedi after dispatching Snoke and finally obtaining the prophesied balance in the force. That would have opened up all kinds of interesting new places to take Star Wars and new stories to explore. But they chickened out at the last second. And then yeah, the whole last half of the movie with the slow space chase, escape plan, side quest... none of that made any sense in terms of its writing.

iainmerrick 3y ago
I strongly agree on all counts. Overall, the bad outweighed the good for me; but at least it tried and I give it points for that. The other two sequels were just lazy. The best modern Star Wars movie by far was Rogue One. In some ways Rogue One had an easier job because it was explicitly an exercise in elaborating on the original movies, rather than trying to expand in a brand new direction. But it did its job tremendously well. (And the TV show Andor is taking things in cool new directions.)
- ethbr1 3y ago
  At this point with movies, especially franchise movies, I'm more interested in how high the highest points of a film hit than the average level. If you do 1 really cool thing and 99 shitty things? Still into it! And TLJ does better than that. There's far too much average pablum out there. Or almost worse, a movie that's entirely just slightly better than average... but never exceed slightly better.
- hef19898 3y ago
  Rogue One was great. The moment I saw Jyn being transported in Jaggurnought, I was sold. The Star Wars universe, from the original triology over the Clone Wars to the extended universe from the days of Westend Games, has so much stuff to work with. Stuff, that is now free to use since it is not canon anymore. The sequel triology did nothing of the sort, insetad it took the idea of a reborn Emperor, IMHO among the worst ideas of the Legebds EU, and made somehow even worse. When the hinted at a fleet of hidden star destroyers in Rise of Skywalker, I so hoped they would steal some elements of the Katana-fleet story arch. But nope. Funny how all the series set after Endor do their utmost to ignore the sequel movies, at least it feels like that to me. Fo rTgrawn so, they could have skippes the zombie stormtrooper part. Star Wars zombies were a bad idea when introduced in that book about an infested star destroyer, written at the hight of the pop culture zombie craze, and are an element the new canon could have well lived without. After all, Thrawns thing in Timothy Zahns book triology was cloned soldiers. But we will see how that story goes, Thrawn is bavk, and I'm all for it!
joshgachnang 3y ago
Most egregiously, IMO, was the Holdo Maneuver (jumping the rebel cruiser into the pursuing First Order ship). If that's a thing, why didn't they use that on the Death Star, the Executor, etc. Why weren't people building massive objects with no guns or shields, just a hyperdrive? It just wrecks the internal consistency for an admittedly awe-inspiring moment in theaters.
- Lord-Jobo 3y ago
  They specifically had a line about the pursuers rushing to catch up and dumping all power into that effort. Diverting from shielding and anything that would protect them. After all they had a much larger more powerful force, hubrus lead them to believe that they were safe enough to do so. As for the "why not just build a hyperdrive shell that you can use to javelin a planet into dust" this is a problem that is ignored in MUCH more serious science fiction than star wars. Because it's a pain I nthe ass to explain away.
  - regularfry 3y ago
    They could have bought themselves some points by saying "...and that's how the Death Star works, you need a massive space station as a power source if you want to do it more than once." But no, lasers.
  - btach 3y ago
    Gravity well. You would exit hyperspace before hitting the planet. Same concept as how the Interdictor class Star Destroyers prevent hyperspace/pull ships out of hyperspace.
  - LorenPechtel 3y ago
    We never see Star Wars ships moving at relativistic speeds. Jumping to lightspeed takes you into hyper, it doesn't let you engage in a ramming attack. Besides, we don't know that shields won't stop a ramming attack. The only time it was done it appears the shields weren't being used.
    - 3y ago

iainmerrick 3y ago

I strongly agree on all counts. Overall, the bad outweighed the good for me; but at least it tried and I give it points for that. The other two sequels were just lazy. The best modern Star Wars movie by far was Rogue One. In some ways Rogue One had an easier job because it was explicitly an exercise in elaborating on the original movies, rather than trying to expand in a brand new direction. But it did its job tremendously well. (And the TV show Andor is taking things in cool new directions.)

ethbr1 3y ago
At this point with movies, especially franchise movies, I'm more interested in how high the highest points of a film hit than the average level. If you do 1 really cool thing and 99 shitty things? Still into it! And TLJ does better than that. There's far too much average pablum out there. Or almost worse, a movie that's entirely just slightly better than average... but never exceed slightly better.
hef19898 3y ago
Rogue One was great. The moment I saw Jyn being transported in Jaggurnought, I was sold. The Star Wars universe, from the original triology over the Clone Wars to the extended universe from the days of Westend Games, has so much stuff to work with. Stuff, that is now free to use since it is not canon anymore. The sequel triology did nothing of the sort, insetad it took the idea of a reborn Emperor, IMHO among the worst ideas of the Legebds EU, and made somehow even worse. When the hinted at a fleet of hidden star destroyers in Rise of Skywalker, I so hoped they would steal some elements of the Katana-fleet story arch. But nope. Funny how all the series set after Endor do their utmost to ignore the sequel movies, at least it feels like that to me. Fo rTgrawn so, they could have skippes the zombie stormtrooper part. Star Wars zombies were a bad idea when introduced in that book about an infested star destroyer, written at the hight of the pop culture zombie craze, and are an element the new canon could have well lived without. After all, Thrawns thing in Timothy Zahns book triology was cloned soldiers. But we will see how that story goes, Thrawn is bavk, and I'm all for it!

joshgachnang 3y ago

Most egregiously, IMO, was the Holdo Maneuver (jumping the rebel cruiser into the pursuing First Order ship). If that's a thing, why didn't they use that on the Death Star, the Executor, etc. Why weren't people building massive objects with no guns or shields, just a hyperdrive? It just wrecks the internal consistency for an admittedly awe-inspiring moment in theaters.

Lord-Jobo 3y ago
They specifically had a line about the pursuers rushing to catch up and dumping all power into that effort. Diverting from shielding and anything that would protect them. After all they had a much larger more powerful force, hubrus lead them to believe that they were safe enough to do so. As for the "why not just build a hyperdrive shell that you can use to javelin a planet into dust" this is a problem that is ignored in MUCH more serious science fiction than star wars. Because it's a pain I nthe ass to explain away.
- regularfry 3y ago
  They could have bought themselves some points by saying "...and that's how the Death Star works, you need a massive space station as a power source if you want to do it more than once." But no, lasers.
- btach 3y ago
  Gravity well. You would exit hyperspace before hitting the planet. Same concept as how the Interdictor class Star Destroyers prevent hyperspace/pull ships out of hyperspace.
- LorenPechtel 3y ago
  We never see Star Wars ships moving at relativistic speeds. Jumping to lightspeed takes you into hyper, it doesn't let you engage in a ramming attack. Besides, we don't know that shields won't stop a ramming attack. The only time it was done it appears the shields weren't being used.
  - 3y ago